DirecTV CFO: HD Plans Moving Along
Direct-Broadcast Satellite Provider Counts NFL Sunday Ticket Channels
By Mike Farrell & Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 3/28/2007 5:50:00 PM
DirecTV Group chief financial officer Michael Palkovic said the direct-broadcast satellite giant is moving ahead in its plans to launch 100 HDTV channels by the end of the year, but he conceded that some of those channels will be multiple feeds from sports packages like NFL Sunday Ticket.
Palkovic said DirecTV already has about 70 HD channels under contract and that number is growing. But when asked whether Sunday Ticket would count as 13 separate HD channels -- the package airs 13 out-of-market games each week -- he said it would.
“That’s the way you would count that,” Palkovic said, adding that 70 or 80 of the HD channels would be considered year-round channels.
Palkovic added that DirecTV’s HD offerings will be far and above those from cable operators and other DBS companies. He noted that there are currently about 10 national HD channels, and its DBS competitor, EchoStar Communications, offers those packages, as well as about 10 Voom channels, the HD offering from Rainbow Media Holdings. Further differentiating DirecTV’s HD package is that the channels will be compelling.
“First of all, there are no Voom channels, there is nothing like that that people would consider not really quality channels,” Palkovic said. “We’re talking USA [Network], Sci Fi [Channel], some of the Turner [Broadcasting System] networks, The Weather Channel, mainstream programming that’s been around for a long time that’s going to make the leap to HD.”
In other DirecTV HD news, the DBS provider Wednesday began offering local HDTV programming from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to customers in Greenville, S.C.;Harrisburg, Pa.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Spokane, Wash.
DirecTV now offers local HDTV broadcast channels in 53 cities, representing more than 67% of U.S. TV households.
When DirecTV’s capacity expansion is completed next year, it will offer more than 1,500 local HDTV channels and more than 150 national HDTV channels.
